Columnists - The Durango Herald

Grades make teen question career

DEAR ABBY: I’m 17 and don’t know what I want to do with my life. When I was younger, I was sure I wanted to go into the field of law. It was something my parents also wanted me to do. ...

DATE: Nov 30, 2018 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Dedicated space for teens and tweens is important

Libraries throughout the country make a concerted effort to reach their local teen audience. By fostering a lifelong love of learning, reading and libraries, our young people are empowered t...

DATE: Nov 30, 2018 | CATEGORY: Shelf Life

Spread joy, not germs, to friends and family this holiday season

The holidays are typically a time for being with family members and for sharing. Sometimes, though, this results in unhealthy sharing of communicable diseases such as the flu. Co...

DATE: Nov 30, 2018 | CATEGORY: Creating Community

Great Recession worse than Great Depression?

WASHINGTON – Here’s today’s economic quiz: Was the 2007-09 Great Recession more damaging than the Great Depression of the 1930s? Surely the answer is “no.” In the 1930s, unemploym...

DATE: Nov 30, 2018 | CATEGORY: Robert Samuelson

Liberal parents, radical children – once again

When I meet someone who runs an organization in a blue state, I often ask: Do you have a generation gap where you work? The answer – whether the person leads a college, a nonprofi...

DATE: Nov 30, 2018 | CATEGORY: David Brooks

Is long-distance dater missing out?

DEAR ABBY: I am a 17-year-old girl who has been in a long-distance relationship for two years. We’re still in high school and actively involved in sports and extracurricular activities. ...

DATE: Nov 30, 2018 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Fiber: The first step to preventing diabetes

November is National Diabetes Prevention Month. When we talk about diabetes prevention, we are talking about Type 2 Diabetes. Individuals with Type 1 are born with it. According to the Cente...

DATE: Nov 28, 2018 | CATEGORY: Healing Nutrition

Who wants to play Monopoly? America, do you?

The popular telling of the Boston Tea Party gets something wrong. The colonists were not responding to a tax increase. They were responding to the Tea Act of 1773, which granted a...

DATE: Nov 27, 2018 | CATEGORY: David Leonhardt

The Establishment will save the working classes

What should we do during the next two years of divided government? We could spend them as we’ve spent the last two: Express daily contempt from within the safety of our political ...

DATE: Nov 26, 2018 | CATEGORY: David Brooks

City has ethics, do you?

Durango’s codes recognize what<br/>too often goes missing in the rest of the U.S.

DATE: Nov 26, 2018 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

The return of buffalo gives hope for community

The birth of every buffalo calf on tribal land marks a cultural and spiritual victory that gives tribal members hope. As each calf struggles to stand and walk, the hearts of triba...

DATE: Nov 26, 2018 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Durango goes green with all these blooming bags

What’s with all the green plastic flowers around town? You know, the ones that look like little plastic bags, artfully knotted and with a floral flourish on top. I see more of these all the ...

DATE: Nov 26, 2018 | CATEGORY: Action Line

Photos: Durango High School boys golf competes at stateDemons finished 14th after two rounds at Fox Hill Club in Longmont

Demons finished 14th after two rounds at Fox Hill Club in Longmont

Photos: Cowboy Gathering Social and Parade

Photos: High County Cattle Auction

High Country Cattle Auction brings top-notch stock and country charm to Southwest ColoradoFamily run, generational business dates back to 1940s

BREEN – The family-owned and operated High Country Cattle Auction is “in the bones” of the Cugnini family, said third-generation owner Chris Cugnini. The business was founded by Chris’ grandfather, Pat Cugnini, in the 1940s. Pat then passed the business down to his son, Duane Cugnini, who then turned the business over to daughters, Becky Hawkins and Chris Cugnini, whose daughters plan to take over the family business one day. The auction, which takes place once or twice a month from April to January at 13062 La Plata Highway (Colorado Highway 140) near Breen, attracts ranchers, farmers and those in the cattle industry from far and wide.

Former Durango resident Steve Greenburg has been attending the High Country Cattle auction for more than 40 years, and continues to travel to Breen all the way from Arizona, where he now lives. He attended the September auction last week, where around 1,200 animals were up for sale. Greenburg said effective bidding takes concentration and a practiced hand. “You want to make sure you don’t pay too much,” he said. “And if you do, you want to buy the business.” Amber Belvin, employee of 15 years and Chris’ operations “sidekick,” said bidders are most often looking for signs of good health in an animal, like a plump, filled-out body. If bidding on a herd, a look of uniformity among the animals is key to a good purchase, she said.

Despite Greenburg already having a handful of filled out bidding cards marking the cattle he had won within an hour of the Sept. 23 auction, he said the day was young. One sale day last year culminated in Greenburg taking home 22 semi-trucks worth of cattle, he said. Chris said Greenburg is one of the auction’s longest-term and most generous supporters. “(Greenburg) pays top-dollar,” Chris said. “And (that) makes me feel good, because we’re giving back to (the sellers). I know these people around here, and they’re the hardest working people on the planet. If I can get them 10 or 20 cents more per pound, then that makes us happy.”

Cattle auction prices have gone up in recent years, both at High Country and nationally, Chris said. This year, animals are going for $2,500 to $3,000 a head – double and triple the average prices from last year. The increase, Chris said, is in part because of a screw worm making the rounds in cattle in Mexico, which has lowered the number of cattle coming in from the south, along with people subdividing and selling cattle branches, and local cattle herd numbers diminishing, which has increased demand.

Chris called the price increase “good and bad.” “It’s great if you’re a seller, because there’s prices that you’ve never seen before,” she said. “Older men come in, (and they) can’t believe the prices. Some of them do this for a living, and they count on that, so they’re so happy.” Belvin said some smaller farmers opt to buy less cattle during price surges like this, but echoed Chris’ sentiment about sellers being ecstatic about the unprecedented profit.

Local cattle farmer Lawrence Martinez entered 59 steers and 95 heifers in the auction Tuesday. Martinez has been involved in the High Country Cattle Auction “pretty much forever,” but recent years have been especially fruitful for sales, he said. “These last few years, we’ve been coming here to sell, because this is the place to go,” he said. “I wouldn’t sell anywhere else. (The market here has) been so good.”The auction’s community roots and generational touch doesn’t stop at the Cugnini family: Shane Hatch, the auctioneer, took over the job after his father’s death, Belvin said.

The auction serves as an opportunity for community members to get together and bond, Belvin said. “When we do have an auction, it’s a great place where local farmers and ranchers can get together and talk,” she said. “They come to the cafe, and they talk about the hay, and the drought situation, and I think it’s a good connecting point.” Chris and Belvin both expressed feeling glad the auction can supply so much generational value to the local farming and ranching community. “I mean, what other business can you think of around here that’s the same, right?” Belvin said. “We’re fair, and we’re very meticulous at our jobs. We take it very seriously, because this is (some peoples’) livelihood.”

For the Cugninis – and long-term employees like Belvin, who have become an honorary part of the close-knit High Country Cattle Auction family – the heart of the business aligns with the heart of the local farming and ranching community. “We’re just good, hard working people – Americans – that want to make a good living, and live off this great land,” Belvin said. epond@durangoherald.com

Family run, generational business dates back to 1940s